Lansing Articles

LEAP announces $20,000 public art grant program

September 13, 2012

Lansing, MI - Today, the regional economic development organization, LEAP announced their Public Art for Communities RFP. This program comes out of the LEAP Placemaking workgroup headed up by Steve Curran, President and Creative Director for Harvest Creative Services and Julie Pingston, Senior Vice President of the Greater Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau. Steve and Julie worked with a team of public and private sector individuals as well as artists to develop an RFP and policy template for regions to adopt.

Placemaking is the concept of a community creating visually stimulating and engaging environments that make a community memorable and special, which ultimately stimulates more confidence in the business community to invest and create jobs.

In order to participate, each region must first adopt a version of the public art policy. The policy helps a community identify things to consider when investing in public art, maintenance, installation, insurance, etc. After adoption, the community will submit their proposal for funding to place a piece of art in the public right-of-way. The LEAP Placemaking committee will consider each application and two communities will be chosen for $10,000 grants. If selected, the community will then go on to identify an artist that can bring their visions to life. The policy guideline template and the RFP can both be found at www.purelansing.com/publicart.

Awards will be given out in November at a dedication ceremony with the expectation of the installations being complete by spring 2013.

"This project is designed to strengthen economic development efforts in our region by enhancing the sense of place for residents, businesses and visitors through public art. We are looking forward to reviewing the responses to the RFP and making the awards to the communities later this fall," said Julie Pingston, Placemaking workgroup co-chair.

"Public art is very important to communities. It brings vibrancy to a region," said Bob Trezise, President and CEO of LEAP. "This definitely translates to the private sector more strongly considering investment and job creation."

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Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) is a coalition of area leaders committed to building a prosperous and vibrant region where business can thrive. To do this, we help entrepreneurs start new businesses, help existing businesses grow, and attract new businesses to the region. For more information about LEAP, please visit www.purelansing.com.